Health care team model best for patients and health care system

Billions of dollars in savings could be realized

OTTAWA, March 10, 2014 /CNW/ - Making interprofessional primary care (IPC) teams the standard model for delivery of primary health care services across Canada could help improve patient outcomes while reining in costs. Canada's population is aging, prevalence of chronic conditions is growing and, in turn, demand for health care and health care costs are rising. IPC team care could save the health care system almost $3 billion in direct and indirect costs of diabetes and depression complications alone. 

An IPC team is a group of professionals from different disciplines who work together and communicate under an arrangement to provide health services in a community.

A new Conference Board of Canada publication, the last in a four-part series, outlines the actions required to improve IPC team care in Canada and increase access to team-based care for Canadians.

"The evidence tells us that team-based care significantly improves the health and wellness of patients with and at risk for chronic conditions, reduces emergency room visits, and offsets costs in other parts of the health care system," said Thy Dinh, Senior Research Associate. "There has been an increased use of the interdisciplinary team model for delivering primary care, but barriers, such as funding and how we pay team members, still exist."

HIGHLIGHTS

• Increasing access to IPC teams for Canadians with Type 2 diabetes could reduce medical complications by 15 per cent annually.
• IPC team care could also save the health care system almost $3 billion in direct and indirect costs of diabetes and depression complications.
• IPC teams have been shown to produce multiple benefits, compared to care provided by a solo provider.

Barriers to implementing IPC exist among individual team members, within practices, and throughout the primary care system. These barriers include inappropriate governance, leadership, and pay structures, and inadequate inter-professional education and training programs. 

The Conference Board study, Getting the Most out of Health Care Teams: Recommendations for Action, outlines what governments, health care providers and administrators, and patients can do to ensure IPC teams function well and deliver quality primary care services for Canadians.

Recommendations for federal, provincial and territorial governments:

• Adopt a funding and payment system that supports IPC.
• Mandate and support the development and use of interprofessional education and training programs on the core competencies of collaboration for all health professionals.

Recommendations for health care providers and administrators:

• Provide appropriate mix of service providers to meet service requirements in the most cost-effective way and within the available funding and supply of health care professionals.
• Establish protocols for and implementation of standardized patient hand-offs, referrals, and care coordination among providers on the team and across the health care system.
• Optimize use of communications technology, physical space, and other supports to facilitate collaboration.

Recommendations for all three of the above:

• Engage in, support, and establish a strong and stable governance structure.
• Make it easier for Canadians to access team-based care.
• Monitor and evaluate cost-effectiveness, performance and knowledge sharing on a regular and consistent basis.
• Adopt accountability measures for IPC team models, which are linked to performance.

Recommendations for patients:

• Be open to receiving care from and consulting with different health providers.
• Request greater access to inter-professional health teams.

This is the final report in the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care's (CASHC) research series Improving Primary Health Care Through Collaboration. Launched in 2011, CASHC is a program of research and dialogue, investigating various aspects of Canada's health care challenge, including the financial, workplace, and institutional dimensions, in an effort to develop forward-looking qualitative and quantitative analysis and solutions to make the system more sustainable. 

The report findings will be presented at a Conference Board of Canada webinar, Improving Primary Health Care through Collaboration, on April 22, 2014 at 02:00 p.m. EST.

Primary care reform, along with the sustainability of the health care systems, innovation, and wellness and prevention will be the focus of the Conference Board's Western Health Summit 2014, to be held in Edmonton from May 21- 22.

SOURCE: Conference Board of Canada

Yvonne Squires, Media Relations, Tel.: [phone] ext. 221
E-mail: [email protected]